


Callings

by Merfilly



Category: Forever Knight
Genre: Case Fic, Charity Auctions, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-05
Updated: 2017-10-05
Packaged: 2019-01-09 08:59:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12273147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: When one successful case ties into some loose ends, Nick settles in to do his best.





	Callings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Brightknightie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brightknightie/gifts).



> Thank you, again, Brightknightie!

The night was a quiet one, with the air cool as the autumn approached at its own pace. Nick found himself enjoying it as a balm on the wounds of the years, as if peace had come and intended to remain. The gnawing hunger was there, as ever, but for the moment, he could ignore it and take the blissful mood sinking in on his soul.

Much of that bliss, he knew without having to dwell on it, was the rarity of returning a kidnap victim alive to her family. More, he had done it strictly through good detective work, aided by his partner's unique perspectives and hunches. It wasn't usually their bailiwick, but the precinct had been tight on manpower, and the child was the relative of a political figure.

Schanke really was a good detective, Nick mused, with instincts that led him correctly more than not. There were times when he wondered just how they had come to such an ease in their partnership, times when he remembered how annoyed he had been when Stonetree had tethered him with the man.

Then there were the moments when he wondered if Stonetree was far more aware of complexities than he let on, as there were ways in which Schanke was exactly the partner Nick needed. How many times had his presence, or his active attempt at calming Nick's temper, rebuked Nick's nature and let him hold his course?

_Let us talk about children returned to the fold—_

"Not tonight, Lacroix," Nick said, refusing to give into the memory of other times, other children, other losses he had not prevented. He half-smiled at that little bit of defiance, not feeling any need to castigate himself by enduring Lacroix's prattle, even if the voice was only in his mind.

He, and Schanke, had done well this week, and he was going to accept that, placing the memory of the mother clasping her child safely in her own arms among the other trinkets of time that resonated with hope, rather than despair.

With that promise made, he parked his car and made his way into the loft to await the dawn, a new day, and another chance at finding his place in the world.

* * *

The sound of the phone ringing drew Nick away from the day's rest, making him blink blearily and try to remember the year. That was becoming more of a problem. No doubt one of his dubious kind would tell him it was a sign to move on, that he'd remained too long and that the nights blurring together would cause him to make a mistake in the masquerade he lived.

"Detective Knight," he answered mostly by reflex when he found the handset.

The words on the other end dispelled all thoughts of the cruel beings he existed among in the eternal night.

Humanity had proven it needed no further impetus to its own evil.

* * *

Schanke was glowering, his coffee in hand but forgotten for long enough to be tepid at best. Natalie was doing her best to remain calm, but Nick had known her long enough to sense the frail edge to her control.

"Thanks to our medical examiners and forensic scientists running a full battery of tests on all of the evidence from the case Detectives Knight and Schanke closed out last night, we now know this kidnapping is linked to at least three others in the province, one of which is still an open case here," Stonetree was saying, as Nick pulled himself away from his observations. "We have one suspect in custody, and the second interview with him indicates that he is merely a cog in a machine. 

"This is, ladies and gentlemen, most likely a human trafficking ring in progress, and it is my intention to work with the other precincts to find the head, and cut it off," Stonetree told them. "Revisit the scenes, study the case notes, and find us the connections so we can stop this! Knight,Schanke, stay on this."

That was the note to dismiss, and Nick turned obligingly to his desk, unsurprised when Natalie and Schanke joined him there.

"We not heading right out, partner?"

"Not yet, Schanke. I want to touch on the known associates of our collar first, see if my instincts give us a starting point," Nick told him. "The Bryar case detectives will be hitting our scene first, I wager."

"Not taking a sucker bet; I was thinking we should visit their scene," Schanke said before sipping his coffee, making a face, and then downing it anyway. "Got an associate in mind already?" he asked before he sat at his desk to find his own notes. 

"No. Maybe you'll hit on one that works first?" Nick suggested, and Schanke snorted. 

"You're going to go with my gut instincts over yours? Knight, you feeling alright? Get out in the sun or something?" Schanke kidded him, but he was already buckling down.

That left Natalie.

"How are you coping?" she asked.

"Surprisingly optimistic still," he answered honestly. "We got the child back so quickly that, if it is connected, we may have thrown their operation into disarray. Also, the speed of this kidnapping on the heels of the Bryar boy leaves me thinking they are operating on a schedule. One more factor in our favor, if we can just find the right connection."

"Alright. I was worried. Sometimes…." She trailed off as he shrugged.

"I don't like failing. But this is not quite that. This is a chance to still do more good."

She smiled then, and nodded, before going to get on with her tasks. He didn't need to be in her thoughts to know she was just hoping there were no dead children at the end of this case. Kidnappings so rarely ended happily, after all. However, trafficking usually required live goods, and they would stay that way as long as the perpetrators thought they could get them out of the city and delivered.

Nick didn't intend to let them get that far at all, or see their end coming.

* * *

_Why were you even there?_

Over a century later, and Nick remembered that question, about why he had chosen to involve himself in the plight of people who had been abused, enslaved, beaten down, and left to suffer, all on a matter of differences in skin.

_Because it was the right place to be. Because no person should own another._

"Earth to Knight. Come in Knight!"

"I'm right here, Schanke," Nick said, half-smiling at the man's deliberate strategy of breaking him out of his reveries. It was one reason they had settled into such a good partnership, even as difficult as Schanke could be.

"Not for the last five minutes. Did you actually catch anything I threw at you?"

Nick rolled to a stop and glanced over as traffic stopped moving ahead of them. "The fathers of all but one of the children in all the cases are linked to a now defunct fraternity connected to an American university. The link was missed because not all of them are American, as some, for some unfathomable to you reason, chose to attend school in the land of cheeseburgers and apple pie.

"Did I catch enough of it?"

Schanke shook his head, but he laughed. "Never can tell with you if you're paying attention or running away in your head to some secret hideaway."

Nick pulled the car forward, and made the turn onto the street heading for the previous kidnapping scene. There was unlikely to be anything there by this point, but sometimes… sometimes he still picked up pieces the trained forensic people didn't.

"Not running away, Schanke. Contemplating experiences, and seeing if anything might be relevant."

"Alright, partner. I still think you're a little, what do they call it? Attention deficit at times. I hear adults have it too, not just kids, you know."

"Maybe I am. Maybe I was. Who knows?" Nick asked, to blow it off.

Maybe if he had paid more attention once upon a time, he wouldn't now be chasing down human traffickers. Maybe he would have died on a field fighting against people deemed evil by the Church in order to take their lands and riches. The more times changed, the more almighty greed drove the true evil in the world.

* * *

Nick tried not to be a superstitious man, yet some things in the world beckoned at his simpler beliefs, renewing his faith in spirituality, in the rightness of the way he chose to live.

As he looked up at the old church, its exterior walls showing abuse and neglect of age and the criminal element, he was struck by the fact the windows, high above, remained intact with their dimly colored panes depicting Joan of Arc in a moment of Trial. He carefully locked down the memories he held of past times, and studied the alley. 

"See anything?" Schanke asked, after they both had canvassed the alley that led off the tiny, enclosed play yard attached to the church. Nick felt terrible that the small haven for children had been so close at hand to violence against one of their number.

"No, but correct me if I am wrong; weren't all of the abductions within sight of a church?"

"One was near a mosque and another near a synagogue, but yeah. It helped corroborate the perp's words that this was part of a bigger thing. Finding out the fathers were connected sealed it," Schanke said.

"We need a list of those fraternity members during the five year period covering all of the fathers," Nick said firmly. "And cross-check it against seminary and other religious schools."

Schanke opened his mouth… and shut it as the look of understanding came over him.

Nick smiled, but it wasn't a pleasant one. He was certain he knew the common element, and it didn't make the case any less unsettling for him.

* * *

Nick watched in satisfaction as the mobile force moved quickly, quietly, and carefully with their precious burdens. While not all of the children recovered had tied back to the fraternity, after all, that had been the break. A list had been procured and cross-checked, giving up the identity of the ringleader, a man who had failed in his quest to become a minister of faith. In a dogged, twisted perversion of that call to lead a flock, the man had set about making one, starting so young, by stealing the children of those that had slighted him, in his opinion.

The compound would have to be checked thoroughly, but that was in someone else's hands now. He could return to his home, knowing he had protected the vulnerable, healing families in the wake of ending this particular attempt at a cult.

Schanke came and leaned on the Cadillac next to him, looking smugly pleased, and Nick thought it was more than warranted.

"That sleaze is going down hard."

"With any luck and good case notes, yes, he is." Nick looked at his partner. "Let's head back and make sure our part is wrapped up tight?"

"Let me drive?" Schanke asked, a sly grin replacing his smug look.

"No."

* * *

_Not all who hear voices are crazy._

Nick thumbed through the most recent telling, from an academic's point of view, of Joan's life. How much they could not know, despite all of the liturgical courts' evidence and preserved papers. He did appreciate that most of the historians outright rejected the various theories of mental or physical illness for Joan's service to her beliefs. She had truly been called, unlike the man behind his latest case.

_If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me._

"I have no doubt, you were," Nick said quietly as he read the quote, delivered when the court had asked if she knew she was in God's grace. 

He could only ever seek that grace, but cases like this one, with things tidily swept into justice, and no break in his faith to remain away from what he had become, helped him believe it might be attainable.

Some day.


End file.
